Rackspace Hosting and Akamai Join Forces to Give Customers Faster Online Computing, Backed by Fanatical Support®

SAN ANTONIO & CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Rackspace^® Hosting (NYSE: RAX), the world’s leading specialist in the hosting and cloud computing industry, and Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the leading provider of cloud optimization services, announced today a strategic relationship that will enable Rackspace to offer Akamai’s web acceleration and cloud optimization services as part of its dedicated and cloud hosting portfolio.

“Having independently served hundreds of Akamai’s customers, we are excited to streamline the customer experience on dedicated and cloud platforms with the leading cloud optimization services provider, all backed by our trademark Fanatical Support®.”

Responding to the needs of its customers, Rackspace will work to integrate key features from Akamai such as CNAMEs, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), and CDN delivery for Cloud Files, a Rackspace service that provides highly scalable online storage for files and media. Additionally, Rackspace will resell a range of essential Akamai site and application acceleration services to its customers. The goal is to create a one-stop shop for hosting, cloud, and acceleration services for web content and applications.

“The next decade presents new opportunities for two industry leaders, Rackspace and Akamai, to better help customers succeed with their cloud strategies, especially around feature-rich content, SaaS applications, and dynamic websites,” said Lew Moorman, president, cloud and chief strategy officer for Rackspace. “Having independently served hundreds of Akamai’s customers, we are excited to streamline the customer experience on dedicated and cloud platforms with the leading cloud optimization services provider, all backed by our trademark Fanatical Support^®.”

Just as Rackspace is committed to giving its customers the industry’s best service, Akamai has achieved the same level of user satisfaction with its globally-distributed network, which helps businesses optimize the cloud. Integrating Akamai’s services into the Rackspace product portfolio addresses four common challenges faced by companies moving their businesses into the cloud or into hosted environments: latency, availability, scalability and security.

Akamai services are designed to reduce latency and provide for high availability in the cloud by leveraging more than 77,000 servers located in 71 countries. Providing instant scalability and robust security, Akamai helps businesses lower their IT costs, boost sales, and improve user adoption and productivity for hosted business applications and websites.

“This is a strategic relationship for Akamai and Rackspace aimed at helping our enterprise customers realize the full potential of cloud services from the data center to the end user,” said Willie Tejada, vice president, application and site acceleration for Akamai. “By combining two best-of-class solutions for application hosting and cloud acceleration, Rackspace customers can gain improved performance, security and reliability for their Web-based applications.”

Rackspace will include Akamai solutions, either as an add-on or as an embedded suite of services, as part of Rackspace’s full range of offerings across dedicated, cloud, and hybrid hosting. The initiative will begin with Akamai’s content delivery services being integrated with Cloud Files, a Rackspace service that provides highly scalable online storage for files and media. Additional current plans include providing Fanatical Support on a range of Akamai services to be sold in conjunction with Rackspace dedicated and cloud hosting services beginning in the second quarter.

Both companies invite existing and prospective customers to visit www.Rackspace.com/Akamai or www.Akamai.com/Rackspace to learn more about the strategic relationship, upcoming Webinars and events to be held throughout 2011 in various cities.

About Rackspace Hosting

Rackspace Hosting is the world's leading specialist in the hosting and cloud computing industry, and the founder of OpenStack, an open source cloud platform. The San Antonio-based company provides Fanatical Support® to its customers, across a portfolio of IT services, including Managed Hosting and Cloud Computing. In 2010, Rackspace was recognized by Bloomberg BusinessWeek as a Top 100 Performing Technology Company and listed on the InformationWeek 500 as one of the nation’s most innovative users of business technology. The company was also positioned in the Leaders Quadrant by Gartner Inc. in the “2010 Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service and Web Hosting.” For more information, visit www.rackspace.com.

Rackspace Hosting Inc. Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If such risks or uncertainties materialize or such assumptions prove incorrect, the results of Rackspace Hosting could differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including any statements concerning expected development, performance or market acceptance associated with our product offerings and services, including those provided by Akamai; anticipated operational and financial benefits from our product offerings and services, including those provided by Akamai; any statements of expectation or belief; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include including the possibility that expected benefits from our product offerings and services may not materialize because our products are not generally accepted in the marketplace, which could occur due to certain factors including (i) a failure to market the product or services cost effectively, differentiate the product from competitive products or communicate differentiations effectively, (ii) the reliability, quality or compatibility associated with our products and services, (iii) changes in technology which adversely affect the benefits of our products or services, and (iv) other risks that are described in Rackspace Hosting’s Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2010, filed with the SEC on November 9, 2010. Except as required by law, Rackspace Hosting assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements publicly, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.

About Akamai

Akamai^® provides market-leading, cloud-based services for optimizing Web and mobile content and applications, online HD video, and secure eCommerce. Combining highly distributed, energy-efficient computing with intelligent software, Akamai's global platform is transforming the cloud into a more viable place to inform, entertain, advertise, transact and collaborate. To learn how the world's leading enterprises are optimizing their business in the cloud, please visit www.akamai.com and follow @Akamai on Twitter.

Akamai Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act

This release contains information about future expectations, plans and prospects of Akamai's management that constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors including, but not limited to, the effects of any attempts to intentionally disrupt our services or network by hackers or others, unexpected early termination of Akamai's relationship with the Rackspace, failure of Akamai technology to integrate effectively with Rackspace technology, a failure of Akamai's network infrastructure, and other factors that are discussed in Akamai's Annual Report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and other documents periodically filed with the SEC.

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